1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproducing/recording apparatus having a disk gate for inserting and ejecting a disk.
2. Description of Related Art
A reproducing/recording apparatus is used for reproducing data from or recording data on a disk.
As an example of such reproducing/recording apparatus, there is a tray type one that includes an apparatus body having a disk gate for inserting and ejecting a disk, a tray provided inside the apparatus body for accommodating the disk, a recording/reproducing mechanism for recording on and reproducing from the disk accommodated in the tray, and a loading mechanism for advancing and retracting the tray between a position where the disk faces the recording/reproducing mechanism and a position near the disk gate.
The loading mechanism includes a motor, a plurality of gears driven by the motor, and a rack coupled with the gears and provided on the tray. When the tray advances to a predetermined position, a sensor switch is activated to start or stop rotation of the motor.
This switch is adapted to shit operations by manually pushing in the tray that has been drawn out from the disk gate.
In the above example of the prior art, a motor switch is turned on by pushing in the tray. However, since the tray is coupled with the motor switch through the plurality of gears, there is a disadvantage that the tray push-in operation comes with a load to idle the gears.
As another example of the reproducing/recording apparatus, there is a slot-in type one in which an arm for holding the outer circumferential edge of the disk is provided on a base plate. The distance that the base plate of the slot-in type reproducing/recording apparatus advances and retracts is shorter than the distance that the tray of the tray type does. Accordingly, in the slot-in type, comparing with the tray type, the plurality of gears of the loading mechanism should have higher gear ratio and thus a large load is imposed on base plate push-in operation.